A bonus people don't realize is that you're not necessarily competing with big companies. You're solving problems where they get the credit and you get money. I'm not in that boat yet, but that's exactly what Paul's been writing about for the past 8 years.
The advantage of being small in a field where 3-5 big companies try to create a web suite is that they have to focus on each other, not on little startups. While they're busy trying to match each other feature for feature in the way that a big company is supposed to do, you can develop a solution and traction, that they would love to buy and release to show the users and media how "smart" and "cutting edge" they are, even though they did not themselves commission the creation of the technology. It also helps them self-affirm and brag that they hire "the best and the brightest."
